NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
One of the great myths of the world of sports is that America pulls for the underdog.
Truth be told, fans love the big dogs best of all. And that's the reason broadcasters and leagues do better when the powerhouse teams make it to sports finals.
When the Yankees or Lakers are there fighting for a championship, it's a guaranteed boost to ratings. And the lift is not just the additional television viewership in major media markets like New York or Los Angeles, it's also the deep fan base they have across the country.
When Sports Illustrated did state-by-state polls (in 47 states so far) to ask sports fans about their favorite teams, it found 15 states outside of California that listed the Lakers as their favorite NBA teams. Another 19 states list the Lakers as its second favorite basketball team.
The states where the Lakers rule stretch from Alaska to Alabama, and they include Tennessee, which has its own NBA team, the Memphis Grizzlies.
That's a big part of the reason that the ratings for this year's NBA finals are 68 percent higher through the first three games than they were last year, when the New Jersey Nets met the San Antonio Spurs.
Neither of last year's teams has any appreciable fan support outside their home markets. The Spurs, in fact, are only the third-most popular team in their own state.
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| ABC was the winner when the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs to make it to the NBA Finals. |
Baseball fans love to complain about the fact that the Yankees are in the World Series so frequently – six times in the last eight years, and nearly half of the Series played since 1922.
But despite all the talk that a Cubs-Red Sox battle of long-suffering underdogs would have made the most compelling series match-up last year, the Yankees brought more than their share of fans to their television sets.
Ratings were 17 percent better than the the first six games of the 2002 match-up of between the San Francisco Giants and the Anaheim Angels. Even in markets where the Yankees are hated, such as Boston, the average rating last year came in at 8 percent better than the first six games of 2003.
More than just television
It's not just television viewership – teams like the Yankees and Lakers are consistently the best road draw in their sports.
A three-game series the Yankees played in Arlington, Tex., last month drew crowds of more than 49,000 to each game to see the return of former Texas Rangers star Alex Rodriguez. In the three years Rodriguez was actually on the team, the Rangers only drew eight crowds that size. And one of those crowds was against the Yankees.
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Sports marketing consultant Marc Ganis, a fan of the patron saint of underdog sports teams, the Chicago Cubs, says that sports dynasties and powerhouses attract fans due to the familiarity of the team and the top players.
"They complain about the Yankees. But if they're baseball fans they'll likely watch it, and they're less likely to watch with two no-name teams," he said. "Even if you dislike a team, you have history with them. And them being there gives you a rooting interest, whether it's cheering for them or against them."
The SI poll found 32 states outside the New York metro area ranked the Yankees as one of the local fans' three most popular baseball teams.
Those states included such far-flung spots as Utah and Montana, where the Yanks finished first. The Bronx Bombers were also among the three favorite teams in – brace yourself Red Sox Nation – all the states of New England.
The big dogs also get the better ratings than the underdogs in individual sports, as well.
Golf fans may have been pulling for Phil Mickelson to finally win his first major tournament at this year's Masters, and his late charge on that Sunday made a compelling sports drama. But it grabbed only an 6.7 rating for the Saturday and Sunday coverage.
When Tiger Woods won his first Masters by a 12-stroke margin 1997, it pulled an 11.2 rating for the weekend's coverage. His somewhat narrow victories in 2001 and 2002 got ratings of 10.6 and 8.1, respectively.
If the U.S. Open had a choice between seeing Mickelson trying to capture his second straight major win next weekend, or Woods ending his own majors drought, they'd probably take the latter, even if was by one of those old-time huge Woods margins.
Tiger's 2000 U.S. Open win by 15 strokes resulted in a 8.1 rating for the final, which was topped by his 2002 win that grabbed an 8.9 rating on Sunday. When underdogs won in 2001 and 2003, Sunday coverage grabbed ratings of 3.7 and 4.9.
The best you might say about underdogs is that they sometimes capture the hearts of American sports fans. But the big dogs always get their eyeballs.
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